The Political Economic Causes of the Soviet Great Famine, 1932–33
Abstract: This paper documents several new facts about the Soviet Great Famine, 1932–33. There was no aggregate food shortage. Regional mortality rates were unrelated to per capita food production, but positively associated with ethnic Ukrainian population share. Political loyalty to and peasant resistance against the regime were positively associated with famine mortality and state food procurement in regions populated by ethnic Ukrainians. The findings show that, all else equal, ethnic Ukrainians suffered disproportionally high famine mortality and imply ethnic bias in famine-era policies. A back-of-the-envelope calculation indicates that ethnic bias against Ukrainians explains 77% of famine deaths in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, and 92% in Ukraine.
